In two-book deal, Tarantino turns to novels, films of the past

NEW YORK — Quentin Tarantino’s next work of imagination will be in book form.

The Oscar-winning director has a two-book deal withHarper, beginning with a novelization of “Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood” that is scheduled for next summer.

“Once Upon a Time” will be a true Tarantino production: The book will come out first as a mass market paperback, like the old pulp novels the filmmaker loves, and will offer “a fresh, playful and shocking departure from the film,” according to Harper.

The film version of “Once

Upon a Time … In Hollywood” was released in 2019 and stars Leonardo DiCaprio as an actor and Brad Pitt as his stunt double. Nominated for 10 Academy Awards and winner of two, the movie is set in Los Angeles in 1969, around the time of the killings by Charles Manson’s followers.

“In the ’70s, movie novelizations were the first adult books I grew up reading,” Tarantino said in a statement. “And to this day I have a tremendous amount of affection for the genre. So as a movie-novelization aficionado, I’m proud to announce ‘Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood’ as my contribution to this often marginalized, yet beloved subgenre in literature. I’m also thrilled to further exploremy characters and their world in a literary endeavor that can (hopefully) sit alongside its cinematic counterpart.”

Tarantino’s second book will be the nonfiction “Cinema Speculation,” which Harper is calling “a deep dive” into the movies of the 1970s that draws in part on the director’s admiration for the late New Yorker critic Pauline Kael. A release date has not been determined.

“The book will be a rich mix of essays, reviews, personal writing and tantalizing ‘what if’s’ from one of cinema’s most celebrated filmmakers, and itsmost devoted fan,” according to Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Tarantino, 57, may well have more time in the future for books.

He has said that he will retire from filmmaking after he completes 10 movies: “Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood” was his ninth.